Writing in Math Class

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Writing in Math Class

• Peg Brooks
• CGI Teacher Leader
• Sioux Falls, SD

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Marilyn Burns-Writing in Math Class

• Why writing in math class is important.
• Examples of writing assignments in math class
• Suggestions for how to add writing as a component
  of math instruction

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I. Why Writing is important

• Students explain and give examples of their
  understanding of concepts
• Students make connections to real-life
  applications of the math they are learning
• Requires students to
• organize,
• clarify,
• reflect on,
• explore, and
• extend their ideas

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II. Four examples of writing assignments in math
class

• 1. Journal-chronological record of what is being
  covered in math
• 2. Aid to solving math problems by writing what
  they were thinking as they arrived at a solution
• 3. Write about specific math concepts before
  formal lessons
• 4. Creative Writing

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III. Suggestions for how to add writing as a
component of math instruction

• Teach how to write about what you think.
  (metacognition)
• Encourage students and give prompts that they can
  choose from. (on wiki)
• Have students write solution strategies to share
  with the class. Check attitudes (Reflection)

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1. Math Journals

• When writing in your math journal, use words,
  pictures, numbers and manipulatives.
• Through math journals, verbal knowledge,
  mathematical knowledge, personal experience, and
  visual ideas merge as you make mathematical ideas
  your own.

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Purpose of Journals

• Increases confidence
• Increases participation
• Encourages independence
• Decentralizes authority
• Replaces quizzes and tests as means of assessment
• Monitors progress
• Enhances communication between student and
  teacher
• Records growth

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2. Metacognition

• When writing, thoughts become cleareryou
  discover exactly what you are thinking.
• Encourage your students to use drawings and
  graphs to explain their thinking.
• Although were used to just being concerned about
  the results or the answers, if we pay more
  attention to how we think, it would help us to
  think more clearly, and improve the quality of
  our results.
• There are no wrong answers in writing about
  thinking.
• Use drawings or graphs to explain thinking

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Writing to Think

• Writing in mathematics helps students
  think....allows students time to wonder and to
  process. Written explanations in mathematics
  are about what is being done and why it works.
  The type of thinking involved in justifying a
  strategy or explaining an answer is quite
  different from that needed to merely solve an
  equation. The process of writing about a
  mathematics problem will itself often lead to a
  solution. Joan Kenney

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When children have regular invitations to write
and talk about mathematics in open-ended ways,
they soon recognize they can discover new ideas
in the process
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Write about Mathematical ideas

• Explain in your own words what subtraction means.
  (familiar first)
• Explain what is most important to understand
  about fractions
• What do you know about angles?
• What does measurement mean to you?

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3. Reflection

• What you did in class today.
• What did you learn?
• What are you unsure about, confused by, or
  wondering about?
• Describe what was easy and what was difficult for
  you when you were a math student?

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Reflection starters

• Reflect on your participation in class today and
  complete the following statements
• I learned that I..
• I was surprised that I .
• I noticed that I
• I discovered that I
• I was pleased that I

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4. Creative Writing

• Literature based example problems
• One day the Little Red Hen baked a cake for
  her 8 chicks. She sliced the cake into 8 pieces.
  Her chicks each got a piece. Draw what this
  looked like.

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Creative Writing

• Examples of story problems based on literature
• Kids can write these!
• One of Jacks beanstalks was 17 feet tall.
  Another was 8 feet tall. Which beanstalk was
  taller. Tell how you know?

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Creative Writing

• The Greedy Triangle

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Book Titles

• Counting on Frank-Clement
• Annos Mysterious Multiplying JarAnno
• Sideways Arithmetic from Wayside School-Sachar
• G is for Googol-Schwartz
• One Grain of Rice-Demi
• The Grapes of Math-Tang
• Spaghetti and Meatballs for All-Burns
• A Remainder of One-Pinczes
• Marvelous Math Hopkins
• Alexander, Who Used to be Rich Last Sunday-Viorst
• How Much is a Million-Schwartz
• If You Made a Million-Schwartz
• The GreedyTriangle-Burns

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Assessment

• Provides teachers with alternative assessment
  opportunities to note students abilities in
  explaining and applying concepts
• When reading through written explanations,
  instructors can determine if further guidance or
  additional learning opportunities are needed.
• Teachers can monitor each students attitude
  toward learning mathematics

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If a child cannot learn the way we teach maybe
we should teach the way they learn.
Using writing is one way to help students make
the connection between school and real life.
Exploration and extension activities allow
students to apply math skills in ways that are
meaningful and rooted in every day experiences
instead of relying on the teacher to provide
problems and solutions. Students take ownership
of their learning and are better able to find
ways to use it outside of the classroom.
(Brandenburg)
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Why not just talk it out?

• Writing shares many of the qualities of talking,
  but it has some unique characteristics of its
  own, such as creating a record of our thinking
  that we can analyze and reflect upon.
• (Math is Language Too
  Whitin and Whitin)
• While talking one does not usually have a chance
  to reflect and analyze-Writing may give students
  a safe place to think.

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Websites

• http//math.about.com/library/weekly/aa123001a.htm
  (journaling)
• http//www.literacyconnections.com/Tang.php
  (poems and math)
• http//www.mathwire.com/writing/writing1.html
  (writing in mathematics)

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Bibliography

• Brandenburg, M.L. (2002).
• Advanced math? Write! Educational Leadership, 60
  (3), 67-68.
• Burns, M. (1995).
• Writing in math class? Absolutely! Instructor,
  104 (7), 40-47.